With an official blessing by the Most Rev. Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, the Sisters of Providence recently opened a nursing home that looks like just a home.

At Mary’s Meadow at Providence Place, there are traditional dining rooms, a living room, a kitchen, an outside garden, and each resident has this or her own room with a bathroom and their own window seat, said Sister Joan C. Mullen, president of the Sisters of Providence.

“It is a great sense of accomplishment and we want to make sure we have a great spirit to match the facility,” said Sister Mary Caritas Geary, former president of Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, who spearheaded the project.

When the Sisters of Providence converted its mother house into Providence Place, an independent senior living facility, 12 years ago, they had to move sisters who needed skilled nursing care to Mercy Medical Center’s third floor, Mullen said.

“We wanted to bring them back and we are just getting around to it,” Mullen said.

Members of the Sisters of Providence said they knew they did not just want to create another typical nursing home with shared rooms, wide corridors and a cafeteria-style dining room.

They found Jude Rabig, of Northampton, who helped them design what is called a “small house” concept of a nursing home.

The $10 million project, which was completed in August, consists of four large homes, each having 10 private bedrooms with bathrooms. The layout also includes anything a home would have: a kitchen, a dining room and a living room.

The four homes are centered around an outside garden complete with paths that can accommodate wheelchairs.

While the four houses are separate, they all are connected to a central chapel so sisters can still have full access to services, she said.

The first residents are 17 priests and sisters. There will now be room for about 24 residents who are not associated with the religious community, Mullen said.

Mary’s Meadow provides short-term rehabilitation for patients recovering from surgery or other things as well as long-term care, she said.

Every house also has a nursing office where skilled nursing staff will be based. The rooms are outfitted with a variety of necessary equipment, including bed lifts, but much of the equipment is hidden away in a cabinet, Caritas said.